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| Prinsep Monument: Circa 1843 |
One
of the finest monuments that stand tall even today on the banks of River
Hooghly is the Prinsep Pavilion, or, Prinsep Monument. The Ghat named after the
orientalist James Prinsep — as an entity is perhaps unique to India — for
nowhere is it more of an institution in terms of accessibility to a body of
water, be it an estuarine river, or, a rural tank than in the subcontinent.
Mumbai has its harbour and its bandars, and Chennai once had its surf landings,
but Kolkata, being the chief and practically only riverine port, had the luxury
of being home to jetties and ghats from which to board, or, disembark on a
sea-going voyage.
Prinsep was meant to replace
Chandpal Ghat as the official marine landing for VIPs arriving in town.
Therefore a pucca pavilion was a necessity. There was no question about what
style in which it should be executed. The City of Palaces would greet its
important visitors in neoclassic stateliness. Six sets of Ionic pillars hold up
this airy gateway to the city that is just as grand as the Mumbai’s Gate of
India at Apollo Bandar, but lacking such a dramatic setting. It is in the same
spirit of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, but without the scale and power, not to
mention the quadriga on the roof.
The augmentation of the Strand bund
over the years caused the ghat proper to become less immediate to its original
purpose. In 1906 the pavilion already stood over 100 metres from the river’s
edge, the ghat steps having been buried under earthen fill that bolstered
Strand Road. Still, it served as a great ceremonial entrance, especially
conspicuous in the Royal Visits of 1875, 1905 and 1911. On both the later
occasions, an amphitheatre, seating about 3,000 was constructed between the
pavilion and the river in which to receive the royals and conduct them into the
city. ‘It was roofed on either side, the heavy cornice of the archway being
continued all around. The intervening space was carpeted in blue, and a small
dias, with two golden Thrones beneath a canopy, were erected facing the river,
just as the entrance to the archway’. Every governor-general and viceroy also
entered and exited the city via Prinsep Ghat.
The pavilion itself was of such mass
and capacity that it could be put to conventional use. ‘Some of its arches have
been filed in with venetians in order to form offices’.
When it was decided to locate the immense
Vidyasagar Setu at Prinsep Ghat, an enlightened choice was made to locate the
Kolkata approach just to the south of the venerable pavilion. It would have to
stand in the shadow of the new upstart, but stand it would. This refreshing
compromise is one of the most conspicuous examples of how modern Kolkata has
added a needed bit of brutalism to the city, yet not at the expense of an
historical monument. Now the pavilion, after a sequence of tedious restoration,
is in better fettle, having weathered the stormy wilderness of the Vidyasagar
Setu’s construction.
James Prinsep (1799 ~ 1840), to whom
this ghat was ‘erected in his honour by his fellow-citizens’, was a brilliant
member of a famous family long associated with India. He trained as an
architect with Augustus Pugin, but became Assistant Assay Master of the Mint at
the age of twenty. He was also Mint Master for the facility in Benaras. James
Prinsep also built an arched bridge over the Karamnassa River near the fabled
city and restored the minars of Aurangzeb’s masjid that so dramatically
overlook the Ganges. His most famous contribution was as a scholar of Pali
texts that he successfully deciphered. He was also secretary of the Asiatic
Society.
Prinsep literally worked himself to
death. From 1838 he began to suffer from recurrent headaches and sickness. He
was forced to get away from his studies and left for England in November 1838
aboard the Herefordshire. Prinsep arrived in England in poor condition and did
not recover. He died on April 22, 1840 in his sister Sophia Haldimand’s home at
31 Belgrave Square.
News of his death reached
India and several memorials were commissioned. A bust at the Asiatic Society
was to be made by Francis Chantrey but was finished by Henry Weekes. The citizens
of Calcutta erected the Ghat, a Palladian porch designed by W Fitzgerald in
1843, in his memory.
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| Prinsep Monument: Today |
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